I doodled this list during a particularly grueling workshop presentation:
HOW NOT TO CONDUCT A TRAINING WORKSHOP
- Assume your audience consists entirely of peer reviewers judging the suitability of your presentation for publication.
- Make sure that every facet and angle of the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of your presentation are covered.
- Present a thoroughly detailed and annotated literature review of all prior results.
- Design all PowerPoint slides in 10-point font or less.
- Present all quantitative results in at least two different useless graphical formats, courtesy of the fun charts that Microsoft Excel will let you make.
- Create multiple acronyms and use them aggressively.
- Devote the most amount of time to the most difficult topics and processes that only a select few will be asked to perform.
- Name-drop the top brass.
- Demonstrate complicated software without providing notes for the audience’s future reference.
- Emphasize how much the new process costs, so that everyone fully comprehends how importance it is that the new process doesn’t fail.